Sermons
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value preaching that engages deeply, humbly and honestly with Jesus, the Bible, and the pain and joy of living in the real world. And since going permanently online, we have been able to welcome great preachers from all over the world without having to wait for them to visit our shores.
Each sermon opens in a new tab. Close the tab when you’re done to return to this page.
-
6 January, 2005
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Grief, Incarnation, Repentance, Suffering
The revelation of what God is on about in Christ will always upend our expectations and disrupt our lives.
-
2 January, 2005
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Apocalypse, Christmas, Grief, Incarnation, Suffering
In the face of monumental devastation and suffering, God speaks a word, and the word becomes flesh.
-
24 December, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Christmas
A modern paraphrase of a homily for the Feast of the Nativity by Ephraim the Syrian (306-373CE) taken from his second Christmas hymn.
-
19 December, 2004
The coming Christ will continually confound our expectations, no matter how well informed or righteous they may be.
-
7 November, 2004
Preacher: Andrew Woff
Topic: Commitment, Depression, Discipleship, Faith
Scripture: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Haggai
In the pain of discouragement, God keeps whispering to us: I am still with you, and the future has possibilities you have not dreamed of. So take courage, keep at it, hold on, don’t give up.
-
10 October, 2004
When we do not live lives of gratitude, which would actually expand our sense of the world in which we live, God still does not rescind his gifts.
-
14 September, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Crucifixion, Death, Evil, Faith, Love
Scripture: Colossians, Genesis, Luke
The Cross is the tree at which we come to know the fullness of good and evil, and as we choose to bear the consequences of good and evil, it becomes for us the tree of life.
-
12 September, 2004
Preacher: Marita Munro
Topic: Generosity, Jesus, Reconciliation, Salvation
Scripture: 1 & 2 Timothy, Jeremiah, Luke, Psalms
Jesus acted out the parables that he was telling in his encounters with people, expressing the nature of God who seeks after us and rejoices in our being found and restored. God invites us to be people like that.
-
29 August, 2004
God is deeply hurt and offended by our rejection of God in favour of things that are worthless, but Jesus has made possible both our forgiveness and our reconciliation.
-
1 August, 2004
Preacher: Garry Worete Deverell
Topic: Conversion, Formation, Spiritual Disciplines, Spirituality, Wisdom
Scripture: Colossians, Luke
When we detach from things, God comes to fill or possess us by God’s Spirit, and suddenly the world is full of life once more.
-
11 July, 2004
God has given us a new identity and a new allegiance in his kingdom, and our loyalty is now to truth and compassion regardless of their consequences for the interests of any other communities or kingdoms.
-
4 July, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Crucifixion, Culture, Jesus, Spiritual Warfare, Temptation
Scripture: Galatians
The world will try to domesticate the gospel and get it to reinforce the world’s status quo and moral codes, but as people identified with Christ on the cross, we live the radical (and offensive) life of the new creation.
